The present invention relates to a walking stick mounted with casters.
A generally used walking stick is not provided with casters at its lower end. When a user walks ahead by using the walking stick, it is necessary to detach a lower end of the walking stick from the ground and move the stick forward. When the lower end of the stick leaves the ground, the stick can not support a body of the user, resulting in that this type of the stick has a disadvantage in not being able to support the body of the user continuously. If the casters are fixed at a lower end of the walking stick, there is no need to detach the lower end of the stick from the ground, so that the body of the user can be supported continuously. However, in the structure provided with the casters fixed at the lower end of the single stick, the lower end of the stick moves slidingly due to the casters, so that the body of the user can not be supported securely. To solve the problem of the stick falling down back and forth, for example, casters 130 can be provided at front and rear sections of a carrier as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 10-86824, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference. The carrier can be used in the conditions shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 by changing orientations of the casters 130. However, the carrier with this structure has a drawback in falling down in right and left directions, resulting in not being able to support the body of the user stably and securely. In order to support the body of the user securely, it is necessary that a handle 131 having the lower ends fixed with the casters 130 stably stands on its own. As a device which can support the body of the user instead of the stick, a walker is used. Since a generally used walker is big, the places where the walker can be used is limited. A walker that is compact and conveniently used is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 9-38161, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference. In the walker disclosed in this publication, as shown in FIG. 3, four casters 330 are fixed at lower ends of a frame 332 bent in a U-shape. In order to provide the self-standing frame 332, legs 333 extending in the lateral direction are fixed at the lower ends of the frame 332, and the casters 330 are fixed to both ends of each leg 333.
In the walker disclosed in this publication, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, a collapsible chair 334 is connected in the middle of the frame 332, and a basket 335 is connected to one side of an upper section thereof. In the walker with this structure, the body of the user can be supported by the frame 332 that stands on its own because of the four casters 330. Further, since the basket 335 is provided, the walker has an advantage in that baggage to be carried can be stored in the basket 335. In this walker, however, since the basket 335 is protrudes laterally from the frame 332, there is a drawback in having the wide lateral width. Also, there is a drawback in that the walker tends to fall down sidewise when heavy baggage is stored in the basket 335. If the legs 333 fixed at the lower ends of the frame 332 are elongated in order to solve these drawbacks, the overall lateral width becomes much wider, so that the places that it can be used is much more limited. It is especially important for the stick to reduce the restriction of the places it can be used. This is because the field of activity of the user is restricted if the places where the stick is used is limited. In order to prevent the field of activity of the user from being restricted, it is important for the stick to be allowed on board a vehicle, such as a train and a plane. Therefore, the stick is required to be compact when being carried as well as to support the body of the user stably and securely when being used. However, the characteristic of supporting the body of the user securely and the characteristic of being compact so as not to restrict the places it can be used are conflicting characteristics, and it is extremely difficult to satisfy both characteristics.
The present invention has been made to solve these drawbacks. An important object of the invention is to provide a walking stick mounted with casters which is compact as a whole so as to have an extremely small restriction of the place to be used while being able to support the body of the user stably and securely.
Also, another important object of the invention is to provide a walking stick mounted with casters which can be moved stably and easily even when storing baggage.